Alfred Restieaux

Alfred Restieaux (1832–1911) was born in Paris, France, and came from a family of French descent. His grandfather was a French nobleman who escaped the guillotine during the French Revolution. From 1867 to 1872 he had dealings with Ben Pease and Bully Hayes, two of the more notorious captains of ships and blackbirders that operated in the Pacific at that time.

Early history Restieaux left England in the Barque Cromwell soon after the Chartist Riots in London and arrived in South Australia in August 1848 or 1849. He worked on sheep stations and engaged in exploration for gold in South Australia and Victoria. At one time he spent two weeks in the company of 3 bushrangers, who were on the run from the police after a robbery of gold. It is possible that this was the party of bushrangers, led by John Francis, who held up the Private Escort Company's regular escort of gold from the McIvor diggings at Heathcote and Kyneton on the morning of 20 July 1853.

Restieaux spent time in Peru where he participated in a revolution. Later he sailed to San Francisco, where he joined a party of teamsters who crossed the mountains and plains to reach Salt Lake City. He later prospected near Nevada City, California. |group=Note Mr. Williams wrote to Restieaux telling him he was to look to Glover Dow & Co for his pay – Restieaux was never paid as the company became insolvent. |group=Note

Restieaux then traded as an agent for Ben Pease on Ponape atoll, although that venture failed. In August 1871, he sailed with Bully Hayes on the Leonora and landed on Pingelap atoll, where he traded as agent for Hayes until May 1872. Bully Hayes gave Restieaux a promissory note payable three months from date – this was never paid. who travelled with Hayes on the Leonora; Beck's later published stories helped to build the mythic history of Bully Hayes.

Trading in the Ellice Islands

Restieaux left Samoa in 1873 to trade at Nukufetau in the Ellice Islands (now known as Tuvalu). At the end of 1874 or early in 1875 HMS Rosario, under Commander Challis, came to Nukufetau looking for Hayes, while engaged in anti-blackbirding operations. Restieaux said that Hayes could be in the Marshall Islands. HMS Renard, under Captain Pugh, came to Nukufetau in 1876, again in search of Hayes. In the same year J. C. Godeffroy und Sohn was taken over by Handels-und Plantagen-Gesellschaft der Südsee-Inseln zu Hamburg (DHPG). From about April 1880 Louis Becke was on the nearby island of Nanumanga until the trading-station was destroyed later that year in a cyclone. Restieaux provided a description of Beck: “he was first rate company, a good storyteller or as poor Jack Buckland put it, Louis Beck was a first class liar."

During the 1880s, Restieaux continued with DHPG until that company ceased operating in the Ellice Islands. they remained friendly competitors. the home island of his wife Litia. Fanny records that they made landfall at Funafuti, Niutao and Nanumea; however Jane Resture suggests that it was more likely they landed at Nukufetau rather than Funafuti. An account of this voyage was written by Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson and published under the title The Cruise of the Janet Nichol, together with photographs taken by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.

In 1892 Captain Davis, of , recorded Alfred Restieaux and Emile Fenisot as living on Nukufetau. From 1900 the numbers of palagi traders in Tuvalu declined so that by 1909 there were no resident palagi traders representing the trading companies. Restieaux died on Nukufetau in 1911.